Strategic thoughts, June/July 1944
After the events of June 1944, the failed invasion and the battle of the Mariana islands the belligerent nations had to rethink their strategies.
The Anglo-American Alliance was very much in troubles, as many thought war was now without a sense. Why should they fight Germany or Japan? Although Japan was still seen as enemy to fight, only few voices were also demanding peace here, while most demanded to make peace with Germany to fight the Japanese. But that could change soon.
Roosevelt did not want to make peace. And although the numbers of his supporters eroded and it would not look like he would win the next elections, he was adamant. Churchill, who was not opposing a peace treaty, had no chance to convince him. Instead Roosevelt demanded his loyality. Churchill finally accepted, as he feared for the Empire once there was no support from the USA any more. Either, he was no friend of Germany or Japan, too. However, his alcohol consume, not that he drank nothing before, went higher and higher.
A new strategy was now to be made. The Germans could only be beaten with the air forces. So a new air offensive was to be made to force Germany to surrender. A war of attrition was to be tried.
Japan was now out of reach of the air force. Only a submarine offensive could cut the Japanese from the resources of the islands. The nest problem was that the Soviets, after making peace with Germany, not only sold the Germans resources, but also the Japanese.
So they needed to change that. An attack on Russia was soon out of question, as it would lead to a complete hostile Soviet Union. And as they had given the Germans all Western Allied arms and men under Allied control the tensions were already there. But there was a triumvirate ruling now, Molotow, Berija and Schukow. Could there be a possibility...?
For the war with Japan the Island Hopping strategy was to be revived on a dramatical way.
For the Germans the situation was much better than only a few months earlier. Now millions of men could be transferred from the east to the west. Resources, destinated for the war in the east, were reallocated. That doesn't mean though the Germans would pull out all troops out of Eastern Europe. There were enough forces left to have an eye on the Soviets. But, so far, the Soviets played honestly. New resources were sent as well as new secret reports. The Germans accepted that completely. Nonetheless they were also cautious. Indeed there were some divisions deployed in France, Norway and Italy, but many divisions stayed in the East. Nevertheless also the Germans played fair. They had disarmed Vlasow's army and did not interfere in Russian politics. Furthermore foreign minister von der Schulenburg resigned and became ambassador in Moscow again, as it was necessary to keep the good relations. As his replacement Dr. Konrad Adenauer was chosen. It was also a hope to be more conciliant to the French ally and the western Allies.
As for the war the Germans knew that the war became a war of air- and sea warfare. The surface fleet was now bound mostly as a fleet in being and used purely defensively. As it was clear that even the building of destroyers was difficult, even they were used more and more defensively. M-Boats, now armed with two torpedo tubes, were used as replacement. Although the resource situation was now not as problematic as it was before, the Kriegsmarine would get in 1944 only four destroyers and seven fleet torpedo boats. Next year it was estimated to be only one destroyer and seven torpedo boats. More ships would not be ready before 1946/47. And the ships existing were needed to be used as a fleet in being. Uboats and S-Boats were now the main offensive systems. And the new Uboat types were built, but would not be ready before spring of the next year.
In the air General Galland anticipated the strategy of a war of attrition and so ordered more and more Me 262 fighters. Furthermore he gave the order to develope a successor. Other means were hurried. New missiles were to be made ready until January 1945. Until now about 200 Me 262 had been but indeed only two Gruppen of JG 7 were operational, the others used as test beds or for training. He could now hope, that monthly 120 and in half a year even 240 were built. The other promising jet planes were the Arado 232 bomber and reconaissance plane, the other the Horten H IX. But the latter was very ambitious and would not go into production before mid 1945. At best.
So he still had to rely on piston engined fighters. The new FW 190 D-9 fighters were to be produced soon. However, this new type had still problems in great altitudes. Below the plane was superior to the Spitfire IX and the P-51. But not in great altitudes, where the new B-29 bombers could fly. So a high altitude fighter, the Ta 152 H, was ordered but would not come before the end of the year.
Also new bombers were needed. There was the need of a strategic bomber. The planes to select were the He 277, the He 274, the Ju 488, the Ta 400 and the Ju 390. Indeed it was decided to build up four wings of Ju 488, two He 274 high altitude bombers and some few Ju 390 for the navy. As Amerikabomber the Ta 400 was selected. But this design was so innovative that before 1946/47 no series production could be made. And there was still the problem of the priority of the fighter planes. And some medium bombers were still needed as well.
In Japan Yamamoto and Yamashita were planning the next steps. After reaching the last bases of the US, from where they could send their B-29 bombers to Japan, the main land was save, for the moment at least. The air battle of Yamashita, in which only light damages happened but 7 of 47 B-29 shot down or destroyed due to accidents, was unique as the Chengdu air field had no fuel left and new was difficult to aquire. As well, it was no longer save any more soon, as the Japanese bombed it and captured it later this year. However, they needed a high altitude fighter and only several weeks later Germany had exchanged the plans for the Ta 152 H in exchange of the A7M, B7N and D4Y planes for the German carriers.
But at sea they needed to fight the Allied submarines as well as to prepare for the next offensive of the Allies. In the meantime they were however able to reconquer the Caroline islands lost to the US.
TBC
Adler
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